Tag Archives: BrickCon

BrickCon happens the first weekend in October every year in Seattle. BrickCon is the longest continuously running LEGO fan convention in the world, and it’s also our favorite LEGO con! Learn more (and consider attending yourself) at BrickCon.org.

The BrickCon 2012 private convention kicks off on Thursday, October 4th — that’s less than a month away!

If you want to guarantee yourself an engraved brick badge, swag bag, and other benefits of pre-opening registration, now’s the time to do it. Registrations after next Saturday, September 15th can’t be guaranteed these goodies.

Still not sure you want to come? BrickCon is our favorite convention because of its relaxed atmosphere, fun (non-LEGO) stuff to do around the venue, and the great people we get to hang out with each year.

Of course, the heart of the convention is the LEGO itself. Be sure to check out the BrickCon photo pool on Flickr to see photos of LEGO models, people, and events from years past, as well as pics of creations you can expect to see there this year.

Register today, and we hope to see you at BrickCon in a few short weeks!

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I’ve found the Mars Curiosity Rover landing incredibly inspiring, and decided to build a rover of my own to explore the distant planet we made up for the Numereji 2421 display at BrickCon 2012.

Here’s the first photo returned by Horizon from the surface of Numereji in 2382 — a low-resolution “haz-cam” photo of a nearby feature with interesting, layered characteristics potentially indicative of sedimentary processes (and thus the presence of liquid water). This photo represents the first indication that Numereji might be able to sustain human life.

After traveling at a substantial fraction of the speed of light for several decades, the rover lands safely, but the 14-minute delay for Mars-Earth communication (depending on their relative location) recently experienced by JPL scientists translate to 14 years of terror, as scientists wait to receive data from Numereji 14 light years away.

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Registration is now open for BrickCon 2012, October 4th through 7th, 2012 in Seattle (“our fair city”), Washington.

As always, the private convention runs a full four days, from Thursday through Sunday. The public exhibition happens on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets for both are available through BrickCon.org.

And as we’ve done every year since 2008, The Brothers Brick will be organizing a collaborative display. Enough people said things like, “Oh, now I get it! You gonna do it again next year so I can contribute?” after seeing our Numereji 2421 layout that we’ve decided to say “Yes!” and try it again this year. More details to follow over the course of the next few weeks.

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One of my favorite new themes at BrickCon this year was “World Architecture,” organized by Anu Pehrson. Her own contribution was one of my favorites — this gorgeous Hindu temple in the Nagara style of Indian architecture.

Anu provides a bit of background:

This is an Ancient Temple from India. This is the Nagara style of Architecture which was fully developed in the 10th century. Such Temples exist till date and are very much in use as a place of worship and pilgrimage. In Hinduism the devotee offers flowers and fruit to the ‘deity’ as a form of worship. Therefore we always see stalls selling garlands, flowers and fruit outside a temple. A visit to the Temple is not a sombre event, and could be and evening outing for the family or a ‘picnic’ Therefore one finds a ‘fair’ like atmosphere around the entrance.

Her beautiful diorama deservedly won “Best Architectural Style” at BrickCon.

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Aaah, BrickCon. That magical time each fall when hundreds of LEGO fans descend upon the Exhibition Center in Seattle for a relaxing weekend of fun, friendship, and sleep.

Wait. I’m kidding. Sleep never enters the equation.

BrickCon has morphed quite a bit for me from my first event to now. I began attending BrickCon in 2005 (it was NorthWest BrickCon at that point). The ENTIRE event fit into the Rainier Room, which now is just the general assembly room. This year marked my seventh BrickCon and ninth overall event.

Time flies when you’re having fun, right?

What’s also changed quite a bit for me is how I experience BrickCon. In the beginning, I was simply an attendee. I registered, I went, I showed off my MOCs, and I went on my merry way. I’d help out coordinating the Castle display when I could. But in 2009, that changed. At one of the SEALUG meetings, it was mentioned that they needed someone to coordinate prizes. “I can do that,” I thought. So I stepped up.

So there’s the story of how I became Prize Coordinator for BrickCon. I can blame (thank?) Sean Forbes for the “Prize Goddess” moniker, and that’s the one that stuck.

Determining which prize goes what, where, and to who is an entirely scientific process, but not really. It’s taking a look once again at what I have to work with and spreading it across the four major ceremonies that have door prizes (Opening, Keynote, Awards, Closing). Making sure those are dividing properly and separate from what goes to the public is important, too. Part of my job ensures that any incoming prizes are dividing amongst the various pools, too, so that one event isn’t too overloaded. I try and keep Closing as short as possible, too, since by that time people typically are packing to head home.

This year we added a sort of “Santa Claus” prize pool for public and private hours. During the public hours, volunteers would wander around the crowds and hand small sets (provided by the con) and kid’s t-shirts (provided by the LEGO Store in Bellevue) to the kids. Watching their faces was amazing; the look of disbelief was typically first, followed by the giant smile. There was some suspicion that the gifts were completely free, but it was pretty easy to work around. Anyone who passed out those prizes had the same smile.

It’s incredibly busy working with the prizes. In terms of BrickCon, if it didn’t involve prizes, I typically had no information or clue about it. My focus was prizes; I needed to be available to receive incoming donations and prep for the next assembly. I had enough time in between assemblies to enjoy spending time with my friends and enjoying BrickCon for what it is.

Thanks to Joe Meno, Andrew Becraft, and Bill Ward for their photos!

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I have to say that Castle totally rocked this year. This was my sixth year being involved in the Castle section at the Con and I think this was the best so far. Everyone involved really stepped it up this year and they all deserve a round of applause.

The quantity of creations was overwhelming and we had to beg, borrow and steal more area (Many thanks to Steve Walker and Wayne Hussey for making that process virtually painless and to Scott Fowler for graciously giving up part of the neighboring Pirate tables). But quantity doesn’t really say much about a section. It was the quality of the creations that really blew me away. I knew that the builders who were coming had skills but they all out did themselves.

Our collaborative layout was packed with so many builds, flowing from one to another, that it was difficult to see everything and the section of stand-alone models was outstanding.

We had three categories for which builders could win a trophy and a LEGO set. The voters were very hard pressed to make their selections, but they finally did and the winning models and builders were:

Hearty thanks also need to go out to the following people and companies: To Will of Brickarms for the awesome contributor packs and prototype weapons that he made especially for us, to Ryan of BrickWarriors for the sweet fig packs he donated and to Learning Loft Toys for the Lego set prizes they donated to our winners.

We all had a great time and plan to make next year even bigger and better. So if you want to ‘Go Medieval’ at BrickCon next year, please join us! BrickCon!!!

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First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who contributed to the Numereji 2421 display at BrickCon in Seattle last weekend! Because of your skill and creativity people got a much clearer idea of our vision.

We plan on a Numereji 2422 collaborative display at BrickCon 2012 and look forward to the return of great creations, changes to reflect the passage of time, and phenomenal additions.

Congratulations to the winners in our four categories who were acclaimed by peer balloting!

Special thanks to Brandon Bannerman for his CSS Howland hull design and for working on the hulk up to the wire.

Justin Pyne also deserves a shout out for his very close second in the Terrain category and for embracing the challenge of a peaceful space town. Shows heart in a youngster.

I also enjoyed displaying my own Earthship House, and a barn built from a sections of Howland hull. More pics of that once I get a good light box set up and get rid of this stalker rain that followed me back to San Diego.

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We’ve had a wonderfully busy first day at BrickCon 2011, starting this morning with the usual setup that happens on Thursday (and into Friday). After a round of coffee, we started pulling all our LEGO models out and putting them on tables, but were quickly distracted by the OneLug team as they began erecting their 7-foot LEGO Orthanc before our very eyes.

With most setup out of the way — pending the arrival of more LEGO creations by other builders — we hung out for the rest of the day, catching up with old friends and making new ones. Even though the public exhibition isn’t until Saturday, my favorite day of BrickCon every year is Thursday because it’s the most relaxed. That said, BrickCon has over 500 registered attendees this year, so I’m preemptively disappointed I won’t be able to hang out with everybody. But it’s exciting to know that we’ll have that many builders contributing their amazing creations to the con!

We probably won’t have time to post day-by-day wrap-ups after tonight, but you can follow @AndrewBecraft — I bet you didn’t know I tweeted! — and I’ll be uploading photos from my phone over the course of each day. Of course, you can follow everybody’s additions to the BrickCon pool, too.

For everybody arriving tomorrow, safe travels, and see you all soon!

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The builders of the nascent OneLUG have come together to build the Lord of the Ring’s Last March of the Ents in epic proportions. More accurately, they’ve built the battle in minifig scale, resulting in a display eight feet in diameter, and over seven feet tall.

The battle rages between an army of more than one hundred Orcs, and a force of over twenty-five Ents. The group started design and building in February of 2011, and have finished it in time to unveil it at Brickcon, this weekend in Seattle. They estimate that there are more than 22,000 bricks in the display, which weighs over 145 pounds. The tower itself is built almost entirely with studs not on top techniques, in order to capture the sculptural details of the movie version.

I’ve always enjoyed this scene in the movie, and it’s great to see it done justice here. They’ve included all of my favorite details, like the Ent partially consumed in fire, and caught the deluge from the burst damn in action.

The Brothers Brick and From Bricks to Bothans will be co-hosting a panel and Question/Answer time regarding Lego Blogging.

Andrew (TBB) and Ace (FBTB) are on the official panel, but other staff from both sites will be there as well.

This will take place at 2 o’clock, Sunday afternoon, in the Orcas room (aka Classroom A). This will only be open to attendees, not people who come in during public hours.

Also be aware that things will probably be a little quieter around here through the weekend. I know most of us always mean to post in the evenings but fan conventions are tiring affairs. I seldom feel like opening the laptop when I get back to the hotel.

Lastly, if you are attending BrickCon and see one of us walking about, feel free to introduce yourself. We love to meet our readers. See you at the Con!